AT&T Prevents 3G Access To SlingPlayer While Secretly Working On A Similar Service

Remember yesterday when I told you that the SlingPlayer app was hitting the App Store? That was all good and well, but quite a few people have been upset to hear that there won’t be any streaming over 3G. AT&T stated that such streaming would cripple their infrastructure and cause major issues for customers, however, that’s not the whole truth.

Many people just like me were skeptical of AT&T’s answer, mostly because there are plenty of other ways to stream video to your iPhone. What makes the SlingPlayer so different? Apparently the issue is that AT&T has been hard at work on their own app that essentially provides the same functions, only using their own U-Verse recorder at home instead of a SlingBox.

So the real issue here is that AT&T is worried that they are going to lose money selling their own application. Since SlingBoxes are already somewhat common among the techie crowd, the only way they can compete is to cripple the competition. You could always build a better application that offered more features, but preventing the competition’s software from accessing your 3G network is probably the easier route.

Isn't this exactly the type of behavior that net neutrality would address? I'm all for free market competition, which would entail exactly what you suggest (building a better product, including more desirable features), but those who own the pipes seem content to purposefully handicap competitor's products in order to push their own.

On the positive side, this somewhat arbitrary decision (arbitrary in that it doesn't affect WinMo, Symbian, or Blackberry devices) forced Sling to back down from its prior position, in which older Sling devices would not be supported on the iPhone. I've delayed upgrading my WinMo device to an iPhone for three features: turn-by-turn directions, Sling software, and A2DP, so this was infuriating as the owner of a perfectly fine Sling Tuner. Now I may have to continue playing wait-and-see, especially with rumors of a WinMo phone with Zune features on the horizon.

OhGizmo! is a frequently updated blog that focuses on covering items that will appeal to a very specific and often very passionate audience: the geek. Aside from the fare of innovative consumer electronic products, the reader can expect to find news about geek culture, absurd inventions, awe inspiring technology, and an ever growing assortment of articles that we like to think fit within our view of what we’re calling the Geek Lifestyle.